Fire and police to share new £7m headquarters

Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire Alan Charles

A £7million plan to base police and fire headquarters at the current cop main base in Ripley has been unveiled.

Both emergency organisations say their HQs are currently housed in old, ‘fragmented’ buildings that are no longer efficient due to the cost of heating and lighting.

Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Charles who unveiled the plan, says two of the current buildings at police headquarters are more than 40 years old and needed replacing to ensure they were fit for ‘modern policing’.

He said: “The executive block and chamber are concrete buildings put up in the 50s or 60s.

“In parts of it there are bricks coming away, it won’t be long before some of it is in a dangerous situation.”

He said police would pay for their half of the new facilities from £2million in ‘capital reserves’ and the projected sale of a patch of land the force owns near to the Sainsbury’s superstore at Butterley.

He added the force would not need to borrow money for the build, adding that with fire sharing maintenance costs, new structures represent the most ‘cost-effective’ solution.

Deputy chief executive for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service Joy Smith said the service would benefit from working closer to police.

She added: “The cost of our share of the new headquarters would be primarily met through the sale of our current HQ site ‘The Old Hall’, a 19th Century building which stands in substantial grounds in Littleover, Derby.”

Both organisations say plans are at a very early stage and no timescale has been set for the start of development.

Meanwhile the fire service is considering closing the current Ripley Fire Station, in Derby Road along with Heanor’s statioon in Ilkeston Road and opening a purpose-built one on the A38 as the service aims to deal with a cut in its cash from the Government.